KALIA money transferred to ineligible beneficiaries to be taken back

Bhubaneswar: Amidst alleged error in beneficiaries list of the State’s most populous KALIA scheme, the government initiated steps to take back money transferred to the ineligible beneficiaries.

We are working with the bank to get back the funds transferred to the ineligible beneficiaries, informed Agriculture Secretary Saurabh Garg here today.

Although some farmers have filled the red form for exclusion from the list, the official made it clear that not a single true beneficiary will be excluded from the KALIA scheme.

“Nearly about 1.5 lakh people who have applied in the red form for exclusion, we have kept the list with us. We will review the applications. We will not exclude anyone till checking the list properly. The true beneficiaries will not be excluded,” Garg said.

Refuting the allegations that some influential people are in the KALIA list, he said, “The influential people were among the 22 lakh people in the initial list. However, the final list was prepared after verifying the valid documents removing several people from the list”.

“The funds were transferred to 12.45 lakh beneficiaries. If there is an error in the list, we have a system to retrieve the money. The focus of the scheme has been done in a very transparent manner. It is done by a self-declaration and self-selection,” he added.

Clarifying the reports of the transfer of Re 1 to the beneficiaries, he termed it as ‘test check’ before crediting the amount through DBT process.

“In collaboration with the bank under the DBT system, we had transferred the amount to around 7 lakh farmers among 22 lakh beneficiaries that were in the draft. We just wanted to see whether it bounces back or not. By transferring Re 1 to 7 lakh people, we managed to rectify the error in our system. That is why, out of the 12.45 lakh, the amount could not be deposited immediately at the accounts of only 20,000 farmers on Jan 25. We working with the State Bank of India to release the amount to those 20,000 beneficiaries,” Garg said.

He said that there were 22 lakh farmers in the list that was first released on January 1. The list was prepared on basis of the DBT list. The list was later reviewed and verified to include the genuine beneficiaries meeting the criteria under the KALIA scheme.